TRAINING OF NURSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 140, 16 June 1930, Page 8

TRAINING OF NURSES.

PRIVATE HOSPITALS' CLAIM.

MEDICAL OPINIONS.

FAVOURABLE IN CHRISTCHURCH.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day.

It has been stated that opinion among the members of the medical profession is divided regarding the proposed hill to permit the training of nurses in private hospitals approved by the Nurses and Midwives' Registration Board for that purpose. The following series of interviews with leading medical men in Christchurch appeared in the "Press":—

; I>r T. Mill, president of the British ' Medical Association (N.Z. Branch), was ! asked if it were true that the medical profession in New Zealand were "heart and soul behind the nurses," as it was reported Dr. J. S. Elliott had said when introducing the nurses' deputation to the Minister last week. Dr. Mill replied: "I stand firmly by the resolution passed by the council of the 8.M.A., which means that if the private hospitals, applying to the Nurses and , Midwives' Registering Board, afford the scope of training and standard of equipment and experience required by the board, they will be admitted to train, and not otherwise. I consider that the medical profession will be perfectly satisfied with the standard, as at present set by the board, which is now the approving and examining body for nurses trained in the public hospitals." Private Hospitals' Efficiency. Dr. J. W. Crawshaw, consulting physician, said that several of the private hospitals in the large centres were working steadily towards a standard of efficiency which would equal that of the public hospitals. Some of them were even now working on community lines, with private wards and free beds, many of the latter being endowed by donations or legacies. They were thus tending to diminish the strain on the public hos,pitals, and therefore their cost to the general ratepayers and taxpayers. Some of them .were acquiring a standard already equal, if not superior, to many of the smaller public hospitals,, which were now approved training schools for nurses. With regard to the widely-circulated memorandum of the Nurses' Association, Dr. Crawshaw said: "It is quite misleading in its allegation that there is little variety of experience to be gained by a trainee in a private hospital, except in surgical cases. There is, in fact, a great range of cases of all types admitted to the private hospitals. Their gradually increasing efficiency attracts more and more serious medical cases for treatment. Then, the average length of stay of patients in private hospitals is shorter than in public institutions, so that, per bed per annum, the private hospitals have more cases passing through them." He added that, to the character of these hospitals, the proportion of trained nurses to trainees 'was greater than in the public hospitals, so that the supervision of the student-nurses should be more thorough. "The large private hospitals are, apart from State hos-' pitals, the greatest employers of trainednurse labour in the Dominion. The nurses have nothing to lose by the proposed admission of these institutions to the list of training schools, because development and enlargement is necessary for them; and thus more trained nurses from outside will be required to supplement their own staffs." Dr. Crawshaw concluded: "The full development of private hospitals has not been reached. It is impossible to say I what will be the ultimate state of their progress. The principle of the right to train nurses should not be denied them, from the viewpoint of the hospitals, the nurses, and the public." • . Infectious Cases. Dr. John Guthrie, F.R.C.S.E., said that the nurses' circular was very misleading on all points. "They, say that infectious cases are not taken in private hospitals here. They are not admitted to thp largest London hospitals; fever cases go to specific infirmaries. But nursing in infectious cases is-identical with ordinary nursing; the trainee has only to learn to avoid spreading infection. This is part of her examination syllabus. Moreover, medical cases arc given as much attention in private hospitals as in public institutions." ♦ Asked if the nurses were correct. in saying that there was no opportunity for the private hospital trainee to learn the nursing of children, Dr. Guthrie said that there were always a number of children, from birth upwards, nursed by the staffs of private hospitals; any number of them. Mental cases often went to private hospitals until the stage of diagnosis. Casualty wards were contemplated in the additions to the private hospitals, though this was not a necessary adjunct to a nurse's training. "The Nurses' Association complains that patients in' private hospitals would not allow their infirmities to be used for demonstration purposes. What do they mean?" Dr. Guthrie asked. "In St. Thomas' Hospital, London, the trainees learn on dummies. The nurses are not medical students, who are taught on the patient; they learn by observation of the work of qualified nurses, and by assisting them in their ordinary routine duties." He also emphasised "the fact that private hospitals now take many indigent patients free of cost, including long-continued chronic cases, which are not wanted in public hospitals. Safeguard Exists. "I agree most heartily with the private hospitals' deputation to the Hon. Mr. iStallworthy," Dr. Guthrie concluded. ["The only thing necessary is the safeguarding of the present standard of training so that the private hospital will have to attain a like standard with the jniblic hospitals, now used as training schools, before-the Nurses and Midwives' Registration Board—a statutory body 'comprising representatives of the Department of Health, and of the medical profession and the New Zealand Trained Nurses' Association—will approve them as training Schools. This is a most desirablo addition to the present Act, and I hope, with many other members of the medical profession, that the Minister will not delay in passing it into law." Smith and Caughey's great winter clearance fair is now in full swing. Take advantage of this important' money - saving event.—(Ad.) ■ Cold nights bring on colds and chills. Fortify yourself with "Nazol." CO doses 1/6.—(Ad.) Smith and Caughey's great half-yearly j clearance fair is now in full swing. Dras- , tic reductions in all fashion goods. Early - morning shopping advised. ]